The Lawrence City Commission’s rezoning of a controversial property in west Lawrence does little to alleviate concerns that Lawrence is an unfriendly place to do business.

An apology would have been nice. That would have been the polite path for Lawrence city commissioners to take Tuesday when they approved a controversial rezoning for the northwest corner of Sixth Street and Wakarusa Drive.

The site, of course, is the proposed location for a second Wal-Mart store in the city. Commissioners, on a 4-1 vote with Commissioner Sue Hack dissenting, rezoned the property to limit the size of the largest future store on the site to 80,000 square feet.

The rezoning was unusual for a couple of reasons. First, the property owners did not request it. In fact, they were opposed to it. City commissioners basically ordered the property to be rezoned.

Second, the city commission’s action reversed a previous city commission decision. In 2001, city commissioners approved zoning for the property that allowed a 132,000-square-foot store.

That’s why an apology is in order. If city commissioners were interested in rezoning the property, they should have at least offered their apologies to the property’s owners, Lawrence developers Doug Compton and Bill Newsome.

Compton and Newsome left City Hall in 2001 believing they would be allowed to build some 132,000-square-foot store on that property. They thought that because that’s what the city told them they could do. They invested their time and money accordingly. Now, three years later, their approved zoning is worth no more than the paper it is written on. The difference in the size of the building allowed on the property is bound to cost the developers money. There are plenty of risks in the development business, but it is sad that in Lawrence there is reason to wonder whether you can trust the city and decisions by city officials.

What makes the situation more troubling is that city commissioners seem loathe to admit that the rezoning is an attempt to fix what they believe was a mistake by the previous city commission. These city commissioners, it seems, voted for the rezoning because they believed that city commissioners in 2001 got it wrong. Reasonable people can disagree about whether a mistake was made in 2001 or whether the actions of current commissioners might be based primarily on a dislike of Wal-Mart.

However, if today’s city commissioners believe a pervious commission got it wrong, then they should apologize. That’s the polite thing to do when a mistake has been made and people have been hurt by it.

A survey of existing businesses last year by the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce found a top concern to be a “business unfriendly” environment created by local government. Tuesday’s meeting did little to alleviate those concerns. In fact, it helped substantiate this belief.

None of this is to say that city commissioners were outside their legal rights to rezone the property. The developers have promised to file a lawsuit to answer that question. And it is true that sometimes government must hurt a few to help the many. In other words, the rezoning may have hurt the developers but helped the community as a whole. Again, reasonable people can disagree on whether that’s the case.

But Tuesday’s meeting should spur discussion on a couple of subjects. City commissioners should consider whether they’re creating a dangerous precedent by reversing decisions of past commissions or even their own previous decisions. It would seem we’re at risk of driving forward while gazing in our rearview mirror.

Just as importantly, city commissioners need to be more willing to recognize when they are creating a hardship for local businesses. Even if city commissioners didn’t change their votes, a show of sympathy for the problems the city has created would have been a nice message to send to the business community.

As for the fate of a Wal-Mart on the site, that will be decided in court. All that is known now is that city commissioners delivered another blow to the retailer Tuesday night.

Unfortunately, the concept of good manners also took a pretty sound beating.